volume is low because there is still anxiety in the market and investors are waiting for more direction. what is happening in europe brings it right back to the surface but that situation is by no means resolved whether it is greece or spain or the ecb and they tend to want to take some money off of the table in anticipation of weakness in october. cheryl: you bring up the issue of europe and looking at the markets. this does not seem to be ending any time soon. is not a question of if spain need the bailout but when spain will need a bailout. at what point do investors take notice and make trades accordingly? >> exactly what the problem has been. they put that in the background and made everybody feel everything was ok. what we started to see was the unraveling of europe and once again the seriousness of that situation is in the forefront so

a lot will take place in october. he will have a more volatile market and you will see investors moving into the final quarter stand up and take notice and price risk accordingly based on what is happening. spain is hoping it lee comes because it will take some pressure off of them to make a deal. cheryl: let me go to mike macfarlane to talk about the oil contract. what is going on? below $90 the inventory or is it a combination of things that has traders saying i will get the sound button today? >> a lot of uncertainty overseas. if you look at it technically with a lot of technical numbers we settled below 91.5 and we were down at one point because the inventory numbers over $2 so overall going for a lot of

uncertainty for lack of demand out there and these problems we have in europe so the market is poised. for the market to bleed off. geopolitical moves out of the middle east get dragged through the election. i am looking for the market to go down to the 85 level. we were selling below $90 an important level. cheryl: what surprised me about oil and the trading we have seen as the china factor. i that is stockpiling oil and looks like they will continue to stockpile oil as they need more for their growing population but the price isn't reflecting that anymore. >> what could happen out there as well. this is for that reason. their economy will suffer a double little bit. they need crude-oil. people driving cars over there

show the market coming of the way it did. those cracks blew out today. refinery fire in canada turned out to the storage tank. if you look at the cracks between the prices of crude oil versus gasoline that made a tremendous move today and there are other factors. may be a blip in that market but those cracks have been strong going forward so you will see strength in the product versus crude even if the crude comes -- will move out. cheryl: one other issue. talking about the election and november around the corner. do you find people sort of have true conversations about investment decisions at the end of the year? >> absolutely and people will be more concerned about that in october. the first of three presidential debates was the vice-presidential debate.

people are disgusted with the lack of movement in washington concerning the fiscal cliff so part of the problem, the apathy in the market is people don't know where to go. very unclear and the light at the end of the tunnel is not the sunshine but the train coming that you. [talking over each other] cheryl: final word? >> it is going to be uncertainty going into the election. the markets i don't see any strong move to the upside or the down. there will be uncertainty. the stock market hopes the 1425 level in the s&p and more consolidation may be bleed down to the $85 level and that is it because of the geopolitical situation. melissa: it will be fascinating. the middle east and china and the election in this country and it is not a boring time for market participants.

thank you very much. always good to talk to you on this show. no home sales down slightly in august from the month of july but my next guest says we are in the second inning of a housing recovery. a fox business exclusive, american century investment portfolio manager you make money on housing. we are only in the first and second inning. i would think it would be more advanced. >> we think the housing market peaked in 2006. we have been in a six year decline in housing. last year with record low mortgage rates and low prices in housing home sales were flat to down. this year we finally saw a change in psychology. new home sales are up and home prices of 4% to 5%. aflac six your sell-off it bottomed. cheryl: and interesting point about recovery and the fact that

it was a shift but at the same time if you look at major home building stocks not moving in the same direction they have been these names are jumping 200%. i would think the market will only be six months ahead of the true housing recovery with these names like pulte or whar or take your pick. >> the housing stock is up 90% and may reflect cheap valuations at the beginning of the year and new-home sales of 27% and expectations for new home sales of 20% in 2013. what is being picked up by wall street is a recovery in housing and we have a nice run in this group for a number of years and new home sales whether there 380,000 for the last month we think they can get to 800,000 over two years so that is a huge recovery coming at us that will include martians and pricing power. cheryl: let's talk about your funds in particular. interesting moves i want to get

into. equities and relative investments and other plays and real-estate firms. and interesting mix. let's talk about you are holding within your fund reads. the recommend that to viewers as a specific play? >> we do as a core holding for asset allocation to have real estate and the majority of stocks are real-estate investments tracks. cheryl: let's look at the reason you like them. obviously a low-interest environment, what is another point you want to make? i have been following them for years. >> there of 15% so they have done well. they are benefiting from lower interest rates to a 220 year low. credit spreads are tightening too so cost of money coming down but more importantly commercial real estates are very strong.

very little construction activity in the 2012 period. where we are today is demand greater than supply so rent is going up for many property types in many parts of the country. the average yield is 3.3% so investors are looking for a little in come. cheryl: you talk about the fact that people are moving into apartments and things like that because you have hotel and health care and old folks and the apartment buildings. looking at your top holdings, simon property. biggest name in the business. >> a large holding in the index and a fund. stocks have done well this year. and they do have discretionary money to spend and nordstrom or what have you but they

participated in the economy of the last year or two so they have been benefiting and they have been financing and issuing ten year notes that's a 3% so they have been taking advantage of lower rates for good credit. cheryl: i want to bring in something else interesting. timber co.. making the timber play. >> it is based in seattle and in timberland and actually home builder. great combination for housing with timber and housing and a reasonable price and as the economy recovers the price of timber and plywood and 2 x 4s will increase and homebuilders benefit the uptick in new-home sales. it is a great place to be and benefits from rising timber prices and recovery in housing.

cheryl: i have to bring these names up again. when you look at pulte and lennar and the gains we have seen for these stocks. would you tell someone to buy stocks? >> we think they are attractive the next 12 to 16 months. the second half of the year new-home sales of 30%. anecdotal evidence suggests great demand for new homes in many regions of the country. we are meeting in new york where the average home price is $1 million or what have you but it is $280,000. markets like phoenix or dallas or charlotte we are seeing good improvement in traffic and the price still affordable land is cheaper to buy than to rent. cheryl: many people say that happened in 1992. thank you very much.

american portfolio manager. closing bell going to ring in 49 minutes. shares of ethan allen up over the next year. is the housing recovery getting the furniture company a big bump. chairman and ceo joining us in a first on fox business interview. [ female announcer ] you want family dinner to be special.

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cheryl: power mover of the hour, shares of electronics systems firm hitting a new two year low today. the company is a target for more short selling. those traders are worried that the mobile payment market will lock the company of of the sector. look at stocks you today. stock is down 50% year to date and 21% over the last year. there is one year on this one so this is a stock to watch. progress between the nfl with no official deal has been reached. we are waiting and watching. peter barnes is following the story. we have been following these reports for three hours and hoping something happens. >> contacted the nfl and they declined to comment on this

report that the owners and graphs are close to agreement in principle and close enough to deal that they discussed union reps returning to the field this sunday but the afl-cio is commenting from the sidelines after republican governor scott walker of wisconsin, home of the green bay packers tweeted about the bad call monday night that cost them the win against the seattle seahawks. walker said give me a break. time to get a real rest. the afl-cio says this shows republican support for union workers from an ironic force. the afl-cio says a statement yesterday, quote, union members bring value to communities. the next time they treat firefighters and autoworkers differently for union referee is cut from the same cloth.

cheryl: no more bad call. fingers crossed this weekend. thank you very much. the latest in trade prediction numbers show wall street spending president obama will easily win reelection. mitt romney, 75% to 25%. wall street is buzzing about the next obama treasury secretary. charlie gasparino -- we will talk about -- charlie: regular raffs screw up all the time too. i like roger goodell. we won't go there. let's talk about wall street. we should check out so people understand these numbers wall street is heavily supported according to the latest data. 75 to 25 with financial institutions and executives going to the latest. that changes when it looks like

one side is winning and it looks like obama is winning. the next batch of numbers could be different but as of right now i snapshot. they want romney to win. is a different dynamic. in trade is the prediction. wall street guys and traders betting on who would win. they are betting overwhelmingly that obama is going to win and when you talk to people, and what is coming next. who is going to be primary regulators and the person calling shot? federal reserve, big-name for wall street, the primary regulator and banks and they play a big role, white house's money man. who is going to be the next treasury secretary? from the ranks and some not. when you talk to people who they think the odds on favorite someone from inside the

administration. people think jack wu has done a decent job. cheryl: he reported that easily. charlie: we don't fill everybody in. tim geithner will not be there a second term. these -- they put jack lew in this position but then if he doesn't get it who else is out there? two interesting names. erskine bowles is a name a lot of people talk about as having a good possibility. he is someone who theoretically can work with republicans. formal wall street guy. co-president of president obama's budget commission. very good ideas widely ignored by the president. he is a guy republicans like. you want to do a major budget deal with republicans, erskine bowles can make that happen. the other guy i hear a lot about is a guy i know very well and consider a friend.

very decent man who is the ceo of black rock. larry wants the job. no doubt. he has been at the top. and amazing career on wall street. top trader at first boston early in his career started black rock as a subsidiary of blackstone and spun it out and the biggest money management firm in the world and he is one of the smartest guys and if there's a european financial crisis, just anybody on wall street so he is a good guy and if you worry about wall street imploding he might be a good one. cheryl: we launched the business network and did an interview -- cool cucumber. nothing fazes that guy. this was spraying -- spring of 2008.

really early on. warner: he saw that financial crisis coming from a million miles away. he was not at wall street. in 2007 this guy was telling me they were in deep trouble based on the investments they held and that the housing market was investing. his firm was known to 49% just about half of it was owned by merrill lynch. one of the firms going on and some skin in the game and bought by bank of america black rock was there and he slowly spun that out. i don't think they have a stake in that but one issue larry faces, i don't know who would replace him. [talking over each other] charlie: i am telling you he wants the job. whether he gets it or not i

can't tell you but mitt romney might win but wall street saying that is not so. cheryl: good stuff and love to bring you back for breaking news. we know what is happening. [talking over each other] cheryl: closing bell is going to ring in 38 minutes. even allen taking a hit. the furniture ismaker falling in concert with the housing sector after new-home sales came out with the 80 food anniversary at the stock exchange talking to the chairman and ceo. on fox business interview. 4g lte has the fastest speeds.

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builders. hovnanian, you can see it's as i showed it to you, it's down 6% at $3.42 a share right now as we speak. a couple of things worth noting, many of the home builders are setting session lows here as we're going into the closing bell. we did get in some sales numbers, and they weren't too good. so those numbers were a little bit of a disappointment. the one glimpse of hope is that prices have been increasing, so that's something, that's the good side. i should note that we are at the barclays post, and barclays actually cut the whole group can yesterday, including lennar and kb homes. also take a look at some of the home improvement names, right? scherr win williams, lowe's, dow component home depot, those are some names to look at as well. overall home builders for 2012 have done an unbelievable job, hovnanian up about 137% year to date, but this week a tough week, down 12% this week.

cheryl: all right, nicole, thank you very much. let's go to sandra smith, what are you looking at in chicago? >> reporter: hey, cheryl. well, nicole showed you some monumental moves in the stock market, there were some monumental moves in the commodity markets, in the energy complex in particular. watching crude oil prices, very important key close there today, below $90 a barrel, first time since august 2nd that's happened. there's the feeling that more bears are going to pour into the market now that we've breached that very important support level. gasoline prices popping the opposite direction, popping above $3 a gallon. there was a refinery explosion in canada, we now know that refinery operations have returned to normal there, but that caused the pop there, and natural gas prices, by the way, natural gas the best-performing commodity on the cme today. cold weather switching in, a lot of energy producers switching from coal to natural gas, and by the way the euro hitting a two

week low against the greenback, that pressured crude prices and a lot of other commodity prices that we will show you in the next hit in a few minutes from now. back to you. cheryl: all right, sandra, two of the hardest working women in television right there. home prices are on the rise, and yesterday's case shiller report, today we got new home sales numbers, and there was a dip. these numbers are impacting home improvement and furniture stores. here to tell us, ethan allen's chairman farooq kathwari. great to have you on the show. first, i want to ask you about what we're seeing really today with the company. you've got a stock that's up more than 60% over the last year, but today a little bit of a hit. how do you feel on days like this? >> oh, you know, one cannot really pay attention to what's happening on a day-to-day basis. as you rightly said in the last year or so, we're up 60, 70 percent. but more importantly, we are focused on making sure that we

continue to reinvent our business, increase our sales, increase our profitability. in fact, yesterday we started our 80th year celebration in vermont. of course, the company's first set up. and we still make 70% of our products in the united states. cheryl: and you've been there for 25 years, we should mention to our viewers, you yourself have been with this company for 25 years. one of the most impressive things, i think s you've been able to keep 70% of your manufacturing in the united states at plants in the united states. what's the secret? >> well, the secret is what you have also indicated is the fact of being around for a long time and also thinking long term, making investments. you know, manufacturing in the united states is not easy, and if you're not thinking long term, if you're not continuously investing, it's not possible. because, you know, we have great people, we've got great history. we, in fact, have 73 locations

in china and 60% of the product we're shipping from the united states to china. in furniture which is, you know, not made by robots. we still have a lot of labor even though we have a lot of, lot of technology that we've introduced. so i think it's a question of quality, it's a question of craftmanship, and i would say it really is this ability to think long term which has given us an opportunity to retain good people and also to help continue to do, to increase our business. cheryl: you know, farooq, i, like many americans i'm sure, we've all walked into an ethan allen, we've seen your store, but you do have competition out there, and you're on the higher priced size. how do you continue, especially when you go through a housing downturn, how do you kind of continue to get that customer to spend at ethan allen and not go to the competition, not go to lazy boy, for example? >> well, you know, it really is a challenge. the impact of globalization and commodityization has impacted

every business from housewares to electronics and furniture. the way you differentiate is by providing great service, good quality. you know, we have 2,000 interior designers that go to a consumer's home and provide service. we have a great logistics network that deliver our products at one price nationally. and then we also focus on making sure that we've got great style. in fact, in the last two years we have changed 60% of our products. so we used to change 10%, and that was a lot. now 60% product change means you're relevant. yes, there's a tremendous amount of competition. so you really have to take market share, and you have to differentiate. we have great quality, great style and service. otherwise you can't do it. cheryl: 80 years in business, farooq. thank you very much. 25 years of that you've been there. ethan allen's chairman, ceo and

president. congratulations on the anniversary. >> good to see you again. cheryl: closing bell's going to ring in 27 minutes. consumer stock names dominated our today's s&p 500 winners. when we come back, brian purie has consumer names he says are still worth the buy right now. ♪

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[♪...] ♪ >> and here is your fox business brief. boeing's ceo says executives are becoming more nervous about the fiscal cliff. james mcnerney says a lack of security on taxes and regulations are holding back job

creation. norelco held near two-year highs. according to the commerce department, sales fell to a seasonally-adjusted annual rate of 373,000 which was below what economists were looking for, meanwhile, home prices jumped to their highest levels in more than five years. and greece's international lenders are at odds over how to solve the country's debt crisis. the imf has been pushing to restructure greek's debt owed to foreign creditors. e.u. leaders prefer to give greece more time to meet bailout goals. well, here we are at 30 minutes to go, actually, 20 minute toss go. of let's get a check on the markets with nicole petallides at the new york stock exchange. you've got one of today's top s&p 500 movers. what do you have? >> reporter: oh, yeah. taking a look at dean foods, right? i pulled it up nice and big for us. it's up a full five percentage points right now. dean foods clearly a winner on the s&p 500, and why is that?

because they are confirming that they are scoring a potential sale of their morningstar dairy operations. as a result, you see that being a winner. a lot of the consumer stocks very resilient. consumers are resilient despite a tough economy, whatever you want to call it. but take a look at some the other names, or does that make you hungry? tyson foods, conagra, campbell's soup. a lot of up arrows today for this group in particular, a lot of winners on a day where we've had a lot of red on the screen. back to you. cheryl: nicole, we'll see you very soon. well, consumer stocks are among today's biggest s&p winners. brian peery says the consumer is not dead and now is the time to buy into equities, portfolio manager at hennessey funds and joins me now in a fox business exclusive. it's nice to see you. i always like to talk about hennessey funds, but i do want to talk to you about the consumer. how sure can we be that the consumer is really going to hold us up for the rest of the year, spend more money?

>> well, you know, i think, cheryl, i think everybody is -- that's the big question. and, you know, i think that there's been a sentiment out there for some time now that the consumer's really kind of shifting their value proposition, and what they're really doing is trying to stretch that discretionary income that they have to maximize their, you know, their commodity goods. and i think there's a lot of opportunities, i think the market's still reasonably priced for these stocks, and, you know, if you're selective in what you're picking and have an idea of why, i think there's some great opportunities. cheryl: your s&p 500 target before the end of the year is 1500, i'm curious if you could give me a good time sense to get into the s&p 500, just the index even. >> well, you know, i really look at these down days like we've had in the last couple as great entry points. as long as you can kind of take a little bit longer view than maybe some of the traders on the street have, and you can really look out a few quarters of a couple of -- or a couple of

years, if you can buy on these down dips, you're going to be fine over time. cheryl: all right. let's talk about some of those consumer names you have because there's some interesting plays, and i want to get these out to our viewers. you like names like family dollar, obviously, that's a stock that's been very success. , it's had a great run. you also like pier one. start with family dollar. do you think we stick with it? >> i do. you know, i think they've done a phenomenal job in both managing their costs and increasing their top line revenues. they're growing roughly 8% year-over-year, so anything that's growing above that kind of 2% gdp is attractive. they've managed to keep their costs down which has shown up in higher earnings, and i think that, you know, that kind of value proposition is still very much in play, especially as you come up into halloween where you guys were saying earlier, you know, $8 billion gets spent in halloween. i think that that combined with the back to school really is going to look pretty favorable

on the quarter. cheryl: stocks up 15% the past year. again, one of the great plays when we had a recession going on, this stock has been performing strong. it's one of your top ten holdings at this point, you still like it. >> we do. it's actually, you know, as of the end of the quarter, that's our number one holding in the fund, so it is a name that we have owned for some time, and we continue to like the story. they keep executing. their same-store sales, you know, keep knocking the number out of the park, so, you know, we continue to be a buyer in here of this, of ross. cheryl: last year 61%. we're looking at the chart right now. i mean, the chart doesn't lie. let me get to this one, and this is pier one. pier one is an interesting play. do you think it's because maybe we're seeing that pickup in home sales, or is this more of an apartment play do you think? because we still have a big portion of the population that's renting. >> you know, cheryl, that's a great question. i think you hit the nail on the head when you were talking with

farooq, and it's a question of price sensitivity. you know, because i have people coming over for thanksgiving, i don't necessarily need to go out and potentially purchase a new doing room table, but i'm happy to buy, you know, some place mats that go on top of that. [laughter] cheryl: brian, wait, the fine china's not coming out at your house for thanksgiving? does your family know about this? >> my kids are better served eating off paper plates, to be honest with you. [laughter] cheryl: all right. overall, talk to me about the next few months with hennessey funds just in general. how are you feeling about the next six months, once we get past the election, all that stuff. are you still kind of bullish overall? >> yeah, we are. i mean, there's certainly always going to be some questions and some concerns. you know, the looming fiscal cliff is pretty much forefront of everybody's mind at this point. you know, i think at some point it, hopefully, all gets worked out, you know? and then all of this cap x spending that we've been kind of waiting for from the corporations eventually starts to trickle in, and instead of

doing stock buybacks, it transfers to plant and equipment which is great for the economy long term. so as we start to kind of move through these progressions, we think that, you know, overall the economy's going to start to pick up a little bit again, and, you know, six months, a year out we're going to look much better shape than we are. cheryl: brian, again, i'm looking forward to my hennessey barbecue sauce or bobblehead that i'm going to get during the holidays. >> have a great day. cheryl: brian peery at the hennessey funds out in california. closing bell going to ring 15 minutes from now. only two more trading days left in the month of september. will the major indices be able to hold on to some gains? when we come back, we're breaking down all the big movers for you.

cheryl: here is your fox business market check, everybody, and we really have been steadily down today. but again, it's a light volume day. there's some news to turn around in the economy, home sales data came out this morning, prices, watching all of that. nicole's been talking about that throughout the session. right now you have the dow down 47 points, the nasdaq down 27, s&p down a little more than 8 and the cuss l 2000 -- russell 2000 is down as well. oil closing below $90 a barrel. now, despite being the worst performing sector this year, the utilities sector is a bright spot on the s&p today as the top performer, leading the sector

today. take a look at some of these names, and you know them very well. one oak, coned, southern company, wisconsin energy, cms energy are actually leading utility players today, and with that, let's send it over to sandra smith to take a look at some big movers she is watching from the cme. >> reporter: hey, cheryl. well, i said it in the last hit, there were some big movers, and a lot of the reason was we had a weaker euro hitting a two week low against the u.s. dollar, and that put a lot of pressure on those dollar-denominated commodities. natural gas prices surging more than 3% today. remember, a lot of those energy producers switching from coal and more expensive coal to cheaper natural gas. that's spurring demand for it. also we're heading into the winter heating season, arbob spiking today, there was a refinery explosion but a bullish report from the government on supplies, and silver getting a

small bump despite gold heading south. here's your commodity losers on the session. again, that smaller u.s. dollar pressuring a lot of these prices. weak corn, soybeans -- wheat, corn, soybeans, all the grains getting hit. worldwide a lot of countries that import u.s. grains are finding it way too expensive to buy u.s. p crops, so they're buying from other countries, and that's lessening demand and putting pressure on prices. crood closed -- crude closed below $90, and copper prices very indicative of the slowdown in the u.s. and global economy, it too got hit in today's session along with many of the other commodities. back to you. cheryl: oh, good. less people for go to foreclosed homes and steal the wiring out of walls. [laughter] remember that? sandra smith, thank you very much. closing bell going to ring. we have eight minutes to go. be sure to follow the show on twitter @fbn countdown.

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$580 million, but this stock is down more than 26% over the last year. this year, excuse me. the company says it's going to form a special committee of independent directors to consider the proposal. great talk, especially when you have a brother who decides to send you an american greetings card two months after your actual birthday, john casonne. a big, shining light has just entered the studio with me, and that is david asman. david: waiting with baited breath to get their hands on this hour. let's just you and i talk, though, first about housing. because we got these kind of mixed signals this morning on housing. on the one hand, we had this enormous price pop, more than 11% prices went up on median home sales in august. this is the biggest price hike ever for home sales. but on the other hand, the actual sales themselves, the number of actual sales, buzz lower than -- was lore than expectations. -- lower than expectations. cheryl: i think there's a couple things going on. and i think it was a temporary

blip as far as sales volume, i think you're going to see it pick up especially thanks to ben bernanke and 50-year lows on interest rates, hole ri cow. and a lot of those home-building stocks, my god, they're up 900, 200% -- 100, 200%. david: i've got to argue with you on one point, do you really think a two-tenths of a percent drop is going to get people to buy houses? cheryl: i actually think that you are going to see, finally, those numbers begin to take hold as far as sales go because consumer confidence is beginning to rebound, and we all know that a piece of housing wealth in your portfolio if you're a homeowner -- david: okay. these, by the way, just as i'm about to refer to them, ernie's going to put it back up on the screen. there are the home builders, and hovnanian, i think it was over 6%, so it's coming off its lows. but, again, as cheryl rightly points out, the highs -- these stocks have just been zooming ahead.

we had uri hovnanian a month ago, and he was ecstatic. thank you very much, cheryl, i'll try to do you justice. let's switch to nicole petallides now and turn to oil which is seeing another down day. after hours it's p continuing to stay below $90 a barrel. that is affecting a whole slew of stocks, right, nicolesome. >> reporter: that's true, dave. and we're seeing some of those energy stocks as down arrows as well. we saw oil running up, do you remember all the days everybody was so worried about high gasoline prices and oil ticking up only to see a complete reversal in the commodity and watching it selling off. david: okay. now, what in lord's name is happening with rimm? blackberry, we counted them out, but they're coming back from the dead, right? >> reporter: oh! we were talking about that, we put it on death watch on varney. the blackberry's doing well, and a lot of people say there's a very easy flow and that it's easily done. at the same time, their low-end devices actually also doing well, so people are liking rimm

lately. david: all right, and apple, still, i'm surprised apple hasn't taken them on directly saying, hey, business folks, you can switch to the iphone. barnes & noble's getting a pop from the nook, right? >> reporter: that's right. 7 inches, 9 inches, hd, it's new nook. david: all right, nicole, thank you very much. we'll be back with nicole in just a couple minutes. the bells have rung on wall street, that's the end of the trading day. let's take a look at how stocks are finishing up. gotta tell you, folks, the s&p 500 is on track for its fifth consecutive day, the longest losing streak since july 12th, only since august 23rd for the dow, but big losing streak for the s&p, and, again, it has come off enormous highs, so maybe it was due for a pullback. if so, we got it today. let's take a look at how oil is trading today, trading down below $90. this is the first time it's gone below $90 a barrel since august 2nd.